Fabric-feeder for bead sewing machines



- J. A. GROEBLI FABKIC FEEDER FOR BEAD SEWING MACHINES May 5, 1925.

Original Filed Feb. 18, 1921 351 'MA @lbtowneag Patented May 5, 1925.

srares tssas'ze Jossrn A. enonsnr, or new YORK, iv. Y.

, EABRIC-IEEEDER son nn/in SEWING insomnia-s.

0rigina1 application filed February 18, 199.1,Seria1 No. 445,913. Divided and this application filed 1 l February 28, 1923. Serial No. 653' ,YEG. i

1 0 all whom z'tmag; concern,

lie itknown. thatl, Joseph A. Gnonnnr, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fabric-l1 coders for Bead friewing lii'achines, of which the following is a specification.

ll lfy invention relates to fabric-feeders for moving forward or feeding thefabric oper ated upon by bead sewing machines de signed to attach ornamental beads or the lilce'on oneside of the fabric; and my im- PIOVOIIK-lllJS are directed particularly to the production of a fabric feeder feet which, while efficiently moving forward the fabric as desired, will injure neither the fabric nor 1 the applied beads orornaments.

This application is a division of my application No. 445,943, filed February 18, 1921, upon which Letters Patent No. 1,4? 1,892 have been issued to me.

lln the drawings, Fig. 1 is a planview; l 2 is a bottom view; and Fig. 2-3 is a cross sectional view of my improved feeder foot; Fig. 4: is a bottom. view of amodification; Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of that modification provided withleveling means; and Fig. (l is a side elevation of a feeder foot and the associated stitch forming mechanism. j V

, Similar reference numerals designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

My improved feeder foot is designed to be.

" attached, as by a suitable shank 1 to the conventional feeder bar of a bead sewing machine, which, as it does not embody novel features so far as this invention is concerned, I have not illust ated in the drawings.

I prefer to so form the feeder foot that its portions adapted to move the fabric may ei'itirely surround the location of each stitch, so as to insure an even movement of the fabric without distorting it. It is necessary also to provide space between the feeder foot and the loop forming mechanism and other mechanism closely associated with the stitch forming elements of the machine, so that the feeder may move properly without interfering with those other elements, and so that the operators view of the work will not be unduly interfered with. This is preferably accomplished by making the body of the feeder foot2, of an annular shape, and

connecting it with the feeder bar, as by the shank 1 placed on the ,side of the ring furthest away from the operator. j

Asthebeads are served to the fabric, and the fabric is moved forward, it must pass. under the feeder foot. And means must be provided which, while moving the fabric, will not breakor injure the beads or stitches,

To accomplish this I attached to thebottom of the foot 2 a yieldable shoe 3 preferably provided with a rabbet l to receive an annular flange 5 on the under side of the foot 2, to which the shoe is secured-in a suitable manner as by cement.

This yieldable shoe must be sufficiently soft to permit the beads attached to the fabric, and which must pass under the shoe, to bed up into it, so that they will not be crushed. nor injured by being gripped between the shoe. and the top plate of the machine, nor will they be rolled out of proper posit-ion by the pull of the shoe in feeding the embroidery, nor will the drag of the feeding operation operate upon the fabric through the. thread and beads to such an extent as to create danger of tweaking the thread, disarranging the beads or distorting the fabric. Obviously, also, if the beads are of such sizes and are so spaced that theshoe can receive them and permit other portions of its lower face to engage with the fabric, and to move it by direct frictional contact, the smooth and undistorted feeding of the fabric will be thereby materially assisted. i

To accomplish these results in a satisfactory manner it is necessary to employ a soft, yielding rubber, comparable to a sponge rubber, or to provide the face of the shoe with yieldable projections and recesses, such. as exist in sponge rubber, or such as may be given a definite preferred form, for instance as illustrated in Figs. 4-. and 5, so that portions 12, 12 of the rubber, which constitute elastic cones, will receive the beads within or between them, when the shoe is pressed down on the beads.

A hard rubber, such as has sometimes beenv used with feeder feet, can not accomplish the results obtained by my soft rubber shoe. For while some breakage of beads may be avoided, as compared with the operation of a metal shod foot, still the beads will roll under a hard rubber shoe, displacing them,

disarranging the thread, distorting the fabric, and disfiguring the work. Furthermore, the feeding will be done entirely by the drag of the' shoe on the beads, without the shoe touching the fabric, and in fact but a slight advantage will be obtained over the use of a hard metal shoe. In short the form and character of the shoe should be such that portions of it will yieldably straddle the beads or yield above them so that neither the beads, thread nor fabric will be injured, displaced or distorted in the process of feeding the fabric.

When the feeder bar is raised and swung back and then lowered, if the feeder shoe is rigidly connected to the bar, it will tend to first press its forward edge the hardest upon the fabric, and thus engage the fabric with an unequal pressure. This may be avoided by making substantially, a ball and socket connection between the shoe, or the shoe holding element and the foot; so that the shoe may rock slightly in relation to the foot. Thus, in Fig. 5, 1 have shown the shoe as carried by a holder (3, the outer edge 7 of which has the curve of a spherical segment. And this holder fits inside of a complementary groove 8 in the foot 9, which is formed as an intcriorly grooved ring, and is movably held therein as by screws 10, passing loosely through slots ll in the foot 9, so that the holder may rock slightly and thus level and accommodate itself evenly to the surface of the fabric when it is brought down upon it.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art, that details of construction may be modified by the use of mechanical equivalents or the like without departing from the spirit of my invention as claimed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The combination, in a bead sewing machine, of an annular fabric feeder surrounding the stitch position and provided with a comparatively wide contact surface provided with a multiplicity of independently and laterally yieldable elastic contact portions.

2. The combination, in a bead sewing machine, of an annular fabric feeder surrounding the stitch position and provided with a comparatively wide contact surface provided with a multiplicity of independently and laterally yieldable elastic contact portions having their terminals disposed in a common plane.

3. The combination, in a bead sewing ma chine, of an annular fabric feeder surrounding the stitch position and provided with a comparatively wide surface having independently yieldable contact portions consist ing of elastic cones.

4. The combination, in a bead sewing machine, of a feeder foot, a fabric feeder provided with a yieldable fabric engaging face and surrounding the stitch position and n'iovably connected with the foot so as to permit the feeder to automatically retain a leveled position relative to the fabric during the feeding movements.

5. The con'ibination, in a bead sewing machine, of a feeder foot, a fabric feeder provided with a yieldable fabric engaging face and surrounding the stitch position and having a ball and socket connection with the foot so as to permit the feeder to automatically retain a leveled position relative to the fabric during the feeding movements.

JOSEPH A. GROEBLI. 

